Fifty jobs to go at Leicester De Montfort University

Staff were told this week that the sector is set to become more "challenging" due to funding cuts to higher education and the removal of student number controls next year.

Andrew Pemberton, director of communications at the university, said: "We are proposing to make a small reduction to the number of staff employed.

"De Montfort University has ambitions to flourish in an era of high student expectations and we must take difficult decisions now to reduce costs and generate prudent reserves to allow us to make the necessary investments to ensure our university enjoys a sustainable and successful future.

"Our staff costs are significant and a number of employees have been placed at risk of, or have been provisionally selected for, redundancy subject to consultation."

Mr Pemberton said staff would be offered voluntary redundancy where possible. "We are also deleting some currently vacant posts," he said.

The university would not reveal which posts were under threat nor say how much funding was being cut.

Mr Pemberton said the university would also be creating 50 new posts. "De Montfort University recognises this is a difficult time for the staff affected – and for close colleagues and the university as a whole – and the university has put in place a comprehensive support system," he said.

The university will start a period of collective consultation with union leaders, including the University and College Union (UCU), Unison, and GMB. Individual consultations with the staff affected will continue in the next few months.

The university teaches about 22,000 students and employs about 2,700 staff.

Comments

"Staff were told this week that the sector is set to become more "challenging" due to funding cuts to higher education and the removal of student number controls next year."
-------- Yet didn't we just read yesterday about their shiny new building that will be goinmg up? Apparently the 'sector becoming more challenging' doesn't affect that...